Marbella Neat

by Camille Oster

  “Take a seat,” Aggie said, seemingly addressing him specifically. Was that a little hint of something in her eyes? Ricky watched as she walked away, back into the house. She had a nice arse, too. In fact, everything about her was very nice. She had more of an earthiness that Megan didn't quite have. Megan was perfect, but her perfection also made her distant and aloof—ethereal.

  Being a bit cheeky, he took Aggie’s bean bag. It would provide him with the chance to see if there really was something he’d seen in her eyes. How a girl reacted told you a great deal.

  “How’s the DJing?” one of the guys asked. “I heard things are going well for you.”

  “Yeah, alright,” he said. Successful people didn’t have to brag about it. Besides, this guy could do nothing for his career—or anything else.

  Aggie returned and was stumped to find her seat taken. She handed him his drink and Ricky looked up at her. “Thanks. I took your seat.”

  “I can see,” she said. There was definitely not annoyance in her eyes, which was interesting.

  Chapter 22

  Felix couldn't believe it when he walked in the door, hearing those drawn American tones. There was only one American around here that sounded like that, and for some reason, she was in his house. Fucking Esme, what had she done now? For some reason, Shania was here and Felix knew this was Esme’s doing.

  Dropping his keys on the hall table, he walked out toward the back. He could see them sitting at the patio table chatting away and laughing. Shania must have come straight from the office as she still wore one of her tight skirts and a shiny, goldish blouse. Her dark hair hung in cascading waves down her back. Even dressed up in office clothes, she couldn't hide her sluttish core.

  Stepping out on the patio, Felix glared at his sister with narrow eyes. Shania turned her head to him, looking out with a little smile on her face. She knew exactly how much this bothered him. He never had, and he wouldn’t, want her in his house, but here she was—thanks to Esme.

  “I see you have a guest,” he said coldly.

  “I thought it was time we caught up,” Esme said pointedly. “Seems Shania has had an educational time while she’s been gone. Now Father has brought her back. Isn't that interesting?” Esme’s eyebrows rose, but he couldn't quite understand the point she was making. Was she trying to allude that father was interested in her? He really wasn't. Esme obviously didn't understand that Dominic was secretly interested in some other tramp.

  “I better get going,” Shania said, standing up from her seat. That skirt showed the tight curve of her arse and the way the muscles of her thighs seemed to bow out slightly. He did remember what it felt like to have those thighs wrapped around him—intruding thoughts he wished he could destroy.

  “Yeah, you should really go,” he said. “The door’s that way.”

  “I actually remember,” she said sweetly. “Anyway,” she said, turning away from him. “It was good to see you, Esme. If you come past the office sometime, we should have lunch.”

  “Absolutely,” Esme said. “I might have to make the trek over there. We can talk about Felix’s complete dearth of girlfriends.”

  With a drawn mouth, Felix watched as Shania walked into the house, continuing to the door. “What are you up to?” he asked Esme.

  “Simply reconnecting with an old friend.”

  “Desperation to have somewhere to hide does not a friend make.”

  For some reason, Esme had clung to the girl and Felix couldn’t understand why. Then rejected her when it had come out that Shania had spread her legs for their father, then Felix himself. Really, did Esme forgive absolutely anything? Esme was a unique brand of dense, but she wasn’t outright stupid. This only made sense if Esme was doing this specifically to bother him. That was likely.

  Felix waited downstairs, sitting by the patio, drinking a whiskey when Dominic finally returned home. He emerged on the patio wearing Armani. His father always dressed well, having better taste in clothes than he had women. But then, Dominic always seemed a little bit embarrassed about his taste in women, which is probably the reason he never pursued Cheryl the beautician.

  “Esme invited Shania over today,” Felix said, watching his father’s face for an expression—which he readily didn’t give unless he wanted to.

  “Oh?” Dominic said as if it was uninteresting news.

  “Why have you brought her here? She can't be anything but a bad influence.”

  “Oh, I don't know. Shania might be an excellent influence on Esme. The one thing Shania has—that my children lack—is ambition. There’s something very important about ambition. Sexy even,” Dominic said and Felix bristled. Was Dominic having a go at him, too? Him being interested in Shania would be disastrous. No, it couldn't be. Felix had not observed anything untowards between Dominic and Shania, and he'd watched very closely. Dominic treated her like a mentor would. Felix knew his father’s interest in Shania was in her professional development.

  He wanted to complain further about her, but he knew Dominic wouldn’t listen. “What do you foresee for her?” he asked.

  Dominic seemed surprised by the question. “I can see her taking on more responsibility in the company.”

  “A girl like her?”

  “Yes, a girl like her,” Dominic said. “Plenty of rough edges, but there’s an instinct there that can be honed. Those edges filed down and I think she’ll have the drive and ambition that makes a good manager, potentially a very good executive. You can’t underestimate hunger.”

  Felix chewed his cheek in distaste. His father even sought to promote her at some point, was training her to take on a more important role in this company—a company that would eventually be his. It all rubbed Felix the wrong way. He should be the one his father tried to develop, tried to mentor. This was, after all, going to be the company he’d inherit. Why was he wasting his time on dregs like Shania, while Felix was basically left to his own devices?

  Felix felt cornered. She was creeping onto his patch again and he didn't like it. Esme was complicit, but then she always was a bit of a bitch, rubbing it in. He knew exactly what his sister was doing. Again, why was everyone always helping out Shania, particularly as the girl bristled when anyone tried to help her?

  Chapter 23

  The house was cleaned by the time Aggie woke, which was close to noon. It had ended up being a late one last night. It had been nice. Justine and Clara had had a bit of a falling out, but it was to be expected that someone would have a teary wobble about how they weren’t appreciated.

  Megan had been there, and it seemed she was hanging around more than usual. Normally, Megan was too busy, but lately, she wasn’t flying off relentlessly. Maybe she was too worried about someone snatching Ricky away from her. It was perfectly conceivable. Or maybe not. Megan had guts picking someone like Ricky. Not every girl would, being as he was so different from them. Maybe that made her more enviable. Aggie appreciated Megan’s willingness to step out of expectations and forge her own path. It did take guts.

  The girl was clearly head over heels for Ricky and Aggie could see why. He had that way of seeing someone, noticing them beyond the superficial. It was actually a bit jarring, and also slightly thrilling.

  If she had stumbled across him in London, would she have noticed him like Megan had, or would she have dismissed him as someone not of her kind? She didn’t know the answer and thought it would be a shame if it were the latter. Was she overlooking awesome people because of prejudices? She hoped not. Well, she had been interested in Cory, so obviously she didn’t entirely bypass people because they weren’t on the radar with the right crowd in Marbella.

  This cereal was like cardboard in her mouth. Maybe she should call someone and go out for breakfast, she thought. A boyfriend would have been perfect for that.

  She was getting tired of being relentlessly single, getting bored of the same old faces with nothing new. It was no wonder she found Ricky fascinating – perhaps it was just the novelty of him.

&nbs
p; No one could accuse her of having the best luck with guys. She hadn't found that person that really got under her skin. Ricky obviously wasn’t that person, but there was something exciting about him, like a dirty little secret. She couldn't deny he was attractive, because he was. And he knew it.

  Still, not by any means boyfriend material, but Megan had deemed him so. Aggie felt certain it was only a matter of time before that fell apart. Megan would be devastated, of course, but she really should know better than to invest so utterly in someone like him. No doubt he would be a lot of fun to be with, though, if one kept one’s cool about him. She had to acknowledge that if there were an opportunity to go there, she wouldn’t be opposed. There was Megan. As a friend, Aggie shouldn’t even have these thoughts. Decent people did not get on with their friend’s boyfriends—ex-boyfriends. At the same time, she knew Ricky was open to being stolen away, and she felt ashamed of even having the thought.

  The thing with Ricky that made him different was that he had charm, and oodles of it. He knew it and he used it. It was the reason he was here, now a fixture in their group.

  He was lucky to have Megan. Megan was an amazing girl in every respect. In a sense, things always fell into place for Megan—her career, cool boyfriends. Actually, that wasn't perhaps correct. As cool as Ricky was, Megan didn’t and hadn't really had much luck with boyfriends in the past. In fact, Megan hadn’t really had a serious boyfriend, which was perhaps the reason she didn’t see the dangers with someone like Ricky. She’d had a short-lived thing with Quentin, which had caused a bit of a strain to her relationship with Megan, but they’d addressed it and gotten over it without any real damage in the long run. In truth, they were better friends now than they’d had been growing up. They hadn't really gelled back then, had been two different. Megan had been a little too girly, including her interests—ballet and horses. Although she hadn't been particularly gifted at either. She'd been tall and gangly, not seeming to fit into her body somehow, and they had all been surprised when she'd received a modelling contract. In a way, she'd been the least likely to succeed. Megan didn't necessarily put a great deal of emphasis on using her brains most of the time, so she did get taken advantage of more than some.

  Megan hoped Ricky didn't have intentions like that. Megan probably wasn’t someone to see it coming if he did. Could be he was totally decent to her.

  Again Aggie felt that hint of jealousy, wishing she had someone she could be head over heels in love with. Love was a funny thing—still, Aggie wasn't sure being in love with Ricky was the best idea. Being in lust might not be so bad, she thought with a grin. He seemed the perfect guy to be in lust with, that natural cheekiness and his voice. Aggie had to check herself thinking of his voice and how it seemed to work itself into her body when he spoke. It was like he was actually seducing her with his voice. It was the strangest thing, but she couldn't deny the impact it had. Was he aware of it? she wondered. He must be, surely.

  She just wished there were some new people around, instead of the same old faces. Unfortunately, the most interesting ones left, too. The coast did feel small sometimes, but she guessed any place did after a while.

  Inns walked out of his room and into the kitchen, grabbing a bowl of cereal and sitting down at the kitchen island.

  Aggie’s mouth tightened. They hadn’t really spoken since they’d had their last little discussion where Inns had given full flight to his prejudice and narrow-mindedness. It was uncomfortable having him in the house, but he was relentlessly here. He’d stayed clear last night, had sulked in his room. Whatever.

  Not bothering to say anything, she walked back into her room and closed the door.

  Chapter 24

  Driving away from the airport after having dropped Megan off, Ricky blasted the music. A new Argentinian kid, who had some new techniques Ricky would have to try. It wasn't stealing exactly; this was work and he had to see what everyone else was doing, gather new ideas. It was important to stay relevant and this wasn't an art where you could just sit in your cocoon and not evolve. Megan didn't necessarily appreciate the fact that he was playing music all the time, hearing other people’s mixes and generally firing his imagination. It was when judging other people's techniques that ideas came to him—things he would have done different and better. He had to listen to music, and it had to be loud.

  Turning the indicator on, he switched lanes, seeing a signpost for Marbella on the side of the road. Darker thoughts crept into his mind. During these last few days, Megan had always wanted to do something. She got bored sitting at home listening to music and wanted to go out and see her friends. He had to explain to her that he couldn't always just go, but she didn't see why. He wondered if he felt like she sometimes had him pegged in the boyfriend role, the accessory she took when she wanted to go meet with her friends. She didn't understand that there was actual work he had to do, that all the sitting around listening to music had a real purpose—it was necessary.

  It annoyed him that she didn’t see it, or rather how she pegged him, but it was time to turn his attention away from her for a while. Really needed to, actually. It had been grating having her there all the time. That wasn't to say he didn't appreciate her, but she could be a bit full on.

  Ricky wasn't working tonight; had the night off and he wasn't entirely sure what he wanted to do. A full, lonely day stretched ahead of him. Loneliness was not something Ricky was particularly good at. Back in London, he’d always lived in a flat with guys so there had constantly been someone to go do stuff with—not to mention the girls; there were always girls around. But here he had his own place and he didn't really have any friends as such.

  He missed the club; he missed working. He never got bored when he was at Shine, but he wasn’t about to be the sad sack that went and hung out at work on his day off. Maybe that night, he’d go check out to some of the other clubs, see what the other DJs were doing in the surrounding area. In a remarkably short amount of time, he’d become quite known in the region and he was inordinately proud of that. People who knew music whispered when he walked into a club, and it was an awesome feeling.

  The flat was quiet when he got home, throwing the keys on the kitchen island where Megan had constructed a fruit bowl for some reason. It annoyed him looking at it, because he’d never choose to keep a fruit bowl in his flat. Walking over to the sliding door, he pulled it back and stepped out onto the balcony. The neighbourhood was fairly active during the day—cars driving past, women with strollers and pensioners pulling golf carts. There were a whole bunch of pensioners in this area so the place was never deserted. He felt like a loser being home by himself, sitting like a pensioner on his balcony.

  Picking up his phone, he dialled Shania. He’d kind of missed her since he'd stormed out and she’d disappeared. Surprisingly, she hadn't called at all, and he’d received the message that she wouldn't. He would have to be the one to apologise.

  It rang for a while before she picked up. “Ricky,” she said, sounding a little surprised.

  “Hey, how are you? I've been thinking about you.”

  “Have you now?” she said. He could almost hear her arch her eyebrow the way she did. She was a sexy girl; he couldn't deny that. Sexy girls did make you work for it, but then he couldn't blame them. It wasn't fun if he didn't have to work for it every once in a while.

  “I just wanted the say sorry for being a dick,” he said. “Not used to girls not wanting to hang out, you know. I get that you don't want to make this more involved. Just thought we could hang, but I get that you’re not into it and I'm sorry if I pushed.”

  It was silent on the other end of the line, but he could practically hear her softening. “You're trouble, Ricky,” she said.

  Ricky grinned. He so had her; it was simply a matter of reeling her in now. “I miss you,” he said, and he was honest. It was true. “Like crazy. You can't just simply give a guy heaven and then take it away. It's cruel.”

  “I have been known to be.”

  Rick
y smiled more broadly. She played hardball and he liked her confidence—recognised it. Now he simply had to reel her in fully and prepare for a hot night. “Don't be too cruel; you’ll break my heart.”

  “I’m thinking you might be misguided where your heart is, Ricky,” she said tartly. God, he loved bitches.

  “Why don't you let me make it up to you tonight? I'm in dire need of some beauty in my world. Why don't you come over and keep me company? I’ll get some pizza and some beers.”

  “I can't. I'm at work.”

  “Then come over when you finished.”

  “I'll think about it,” she said, sounding bored, but he knew he had her. He suspected she missed him more than she let on – well, she'd missed what he did to her.

  Chapter 25

  Megan got an earlier flight back. Everything had gone perfectly so they’d finished a little earlier than anticipated. She'd hated being gone the entire time. Hated staying in a hotel, which she normally didn't mind. Her thoughts were back here in Marbella with Ricky and she'd been having trouble concentrating on her work. That wasn't to say she’d let her standards slip. She was known for being professional and she protected that reputation. Getting everything done early only helped her in that regard; plus, it let her return home early.

  Ricky was working tonight so she asked the driver to take her directly to Shine. Her bag could stay in the back of the car and the driver could take it home for her. Right now she wanted to see her man. She’d missed him, more so with each trip, and she’d grown to hate lying in bed alone, unable to reach out and feel his warm body next to her.

  Traffic in Porto Banus could be quite bad this time of night, so they crept along at a slow pace until she finally reached Shine. Maybe she should change into something a little bit sexier, but she was too eager to see him to go home first. Besides, sexy always looked a little awkward on her. It was something she had completely cracked yet.